Tepehuán language

Tepehuán (Tepehuano) is the name of three closely related languages of the Piman branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family, all spoken in northern Mexico. The language is called O'otham by its speakers.

Not to be confused with Tepehua languages.

Tepehuán
O'otham
Native to	Mexico
Region	Chihuahua, Durango
Ethnicity	Tepehuán
Native speakers	36,000 (2010 census)[1]
Language family	Uto-Aztecan Tepiman Tepehuán
Dialects	Tepecano
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Variously: ntp – Northern Tepehuán stp – Southeastern Tepehuán tla – Southwestern Tepehuán tep – Tepecano
Glottolog	tepe1281[2]

Northern Tepehuán

Northern Tepehuán is spoken by about 8,000 Tepehuán people (2005 census)[3] in the south of the state of Chihuahua and north of Durango.

Southern Tepehuán

Southern Tepehuán is divided into the southeastern and southwestern group.

• Southeastern Tepehuán is spoken by 9,937 people (2000 WCD) in Mezquital Municipio in the state of Durango. Southern Tepehuán coexists with the Mexicanero Nahuatl language, there is some intermarriage between the two ethnic groups, and a number of speakers are trilingual in Mexicanero, Tepehuán and Spanish.
• Southwestern Tepehuán is spoken by around 8,187 (2000 WCD) people in Southwestern Durango.

Media

Tepehuán-language programming is carried by the CDI's radio stations XEJMN-AM, broadcasting from Jesús María, Nayarit, and XETAR, based in Guachochi, Chihuahua.

Morphology

Tepehuán is an agglutinative language, in which words use suffix complexes for a variety of purposes with several morphemes strung together.

Phonology

Northern Tepehuan

The following is representative of the Northern dialect of Tepehuan.[4]

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i	ɨ	u
Mid			o
Open		a

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Post- alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Plosive	voiceless	p	t		tʲ	k
	voiced	b	d		dʲ	ɡ
Affricate				t͡ʃ
Fricative		v	s	ʃ		x
Nasal		m	n		ɲ
Rhotic			r
Approximant			l

Nasal consonants /n, ɲ/ become /ŋ/ when preceding a velar consonant.

Southern Tepehuan

The following is representative of the Southeastern dialect of Tepehuan.[5]

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i	ɨ	u
Mid			ʌ	o
Open			ɑ

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Post- alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	voiceless	p	t			k	ʔ
	voiced	b	d			ɡ
Affricate	voiceless			t͡ʃ
	voiced			d͡ʒ		ɣ͡ʎ
Fricative		v	s	ʃ			h
Nasal		m	n		ɲ
Rhotic			ɾ
Approximant			(l)		j

A /v/ sound may change to /f/ when occurring at word-final. /l/ only appears from Spanish loanwords.

Sample Tepehuan Text

Northern Tepehuan:

Gʌrooga aapipʌsmaacʌdʌ tʌvaagɨʌrʌ daja, aatʌmʌ ipʌlidɨ ɨʌoodami gʌšiia duutuadagɨ. Vai otoma aʌna istuigaco gatʌaanʌda agai aapi ʌʌgɨ tami oidigɨ daama. Vaidʌ ʌpʌduuna pʌštumaasɨ aapɨ ipʌlidi tami oidigi daama poduucai isduucai ʌpʌvueeyi tʌvaagiʌrʌ. Gʌrsoiñañi tʌtai viaaca aatʌmʌ cuaadagai tʌšɨ ʌʌšɨ tʌgito sivɨ vʌʌtarʌ. Gʌroigʌldañɨ gʌrsoimaascamiga tʌsmaacʌdʌ ivueeyi poduucai tʌsduucai oigʌldi aatʌmʌ ʌgai ismaacʌdʌ šoimaasi gʌrvuiididi. Maiti dagito išʌDiaavora gʌraagiadan taadacagi isiduñia aatʌmʌ soimaasi. Cʌʌ maatʌ aatʌmʌ isaapi ʌrʌgʌʌ baitʌc ʌaacamitʌvaagiʌrʌ dai oidi daama tomastuigaco, dai aapi vaamioma viaa guvucadagaɨ tomastuigaco istomali ʌmo ʌmai daɨ isaliʌšɨ gʌaagai ɨsvʌʌšɨ oodami gʌsiaa duutuadagɨ tomastuigaco.

Our father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, :but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Southeastern Tepehuan:

Utogga atemo tubaggue :dama Santu sicamoe uggue ututugaraga duviana uguiere api odduna gutuguito daraga tami dubar dama tubggue. Udguaddaga ud macane schibi ud joigadane ud seca doada raga addu cate abemo joigudu jut jaddune maitague daguito soy macire ud niuca dacane api odduna. Amen, Jesus.

Our father, which art in heaven, hallowed be :thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done :on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, :but deliver us from evil. For thine is the :kingdom and the power and the glory for ever :and ever. Amen.

References

1. INALI (2012) México: Lenguas indígenas nacionales
2. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Tepehuan". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
3. "Tepehuan, Northern".
4. Bascom, Burton (1982). Northern Tepehuan. Studies in Uto-Aztecan grammar 3: Uto-Aztecan grammatical sketches: Summer Institute of Linguistics. pp. 267–393.CS1 maint: location (link)
5. Willett, Thomas L. (1988). A Reference Grammar of Southeastern Tepehuan.